1999 VINTAGE
Exploding Wine!
Our wine exploded during the 1999 vintage, both figuratively and literally. Figuratively for the number of varieties made. In 1998, I put all of our grape varieties into one big batch of wine, but in 1999, I separated them into four batches. The three-gallon carboys pictured above contain, from left to right: Geode, a white wine made from our green grapes; Jacob, a blush wine from Delaware grapes; Front Row, a red concord wine, so called because the concord grapes grow in the front row of our vineyard; and Dragon's Blood, elderberry wine so named from its deep color and intense taste. The little, one-gallon oak keg was my first foray into oak aged wine. I aged a gallon of Jacob Delaware wine in the keg for a couple of weeks until an oaken taste was noticeable. We'll try a bottle on New Year's Eve.
One advantage of making all of these wines is that Phebe and I got to design six labels. We print our labels on our ink jet color printer and noticed a problem with past labels; when we put the bottle into an ice bucket, it came out looking like a Rorschach card! I posed this problem to the rec.crafts.winemaking newsgroup. Someone there suggested allowing the labels to dry for a couple hours after printing, then spray them with a couple coats of clear acrylic spray, available at most hardware stores. I gave it three coats, allowing each coat to dry before the next application. Although the sheet of labels curled a bit during the spray-and-dry cycles, they were still flexible and easy to apply to the bottles. I wasn't sure this would work, as the labels didn't look acrylic, they still had a matte surface. However, when placed under a running faucet, the water beaded on the label and the ink would not run, even when vigorously scrubbed with my thumb.
This was also the first year I tested and adjusted the acid level of the must. It turns out that our grapes had high acidity, which is why our 1998 wine took so long to age out. It takes a little extra time and effort to titrate the must, but it pays off in producing a better product.
The literal explosion was quite startling and could have been very dangerous had anyone been in the wine cellar at the time. During the 1999 harvest, I used three pounds of Concord grapes to make a grape syrup, boiling the juice down until I had about a cup of concentrated liquid, which was then frozen. When we bottled the concord, after about ten months of bulk aging, I put the thawed syrup into a one-gallon jug and filled with concord wine. I added potassium metabisulfite and an air lock and let it sit for two weeks. Noticing no further fermentation, I bottled that gallon. It tasted very smooth, reminiscent of a cream sherry, but not excessively sweet.
Four days later, I was out feeding the creatures when Phebe came rushing into the barn. She said that there had been a loud noise in the basement. When she went down to investigate, there were bits of glass and corks all over, with the smell of wine everywhere. It seems as though the few remaining live yeast cells waited until they were in corked bottles before beginning to ferment all the new sugar from the grape syrup. It certainly was a successful escape plan, as they were blown all over the basement in the resultant explosion.
I have since learned from the wine making news group, rec.crafts.winemaking, that I should have added potassium SORBATE, not the metabisulfite, when I added the syrup, as that chemical prevents yeast cells from multiplying. Had I done so and let the batch set in the jug with the airlock for a couple of weeks, the few surviving cells would have revived for a while but then would have died off without reproducing, eliminating the possibility of exploding bottles. I intend to make a batch of pear wine this year and add pear syrup next Spring, after bulk aging. I will definitely remember to add potassium sorbate with the syrup.
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